Stars: Keira Knightly, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen
Studio: Focus Features
Based on Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s novel of the same name, this film is based on a book that has been called by some as the greatest ever written. This is essentially a soap opera about a married woman, Anna (Keira Knightly), who has an affair and becomes pregnant by her lover. Set in the late 1800s, not exactly the age of enlightenment in terms of women’s roles and rights, it is not her husband, Karenin (Jude Law) that causes (all) the difficulties for Anna — he only desires that she be discreet so as not to sully his image — it is the people in the highfalutin social strata to which she belongs that ostracize her, leading her to flee to Europe. Not that Karenin is silent on the matter, it’s just very clear that their marriage is not a love match. Knightly is at the pinnacle of her career in portraying the woman at the center of this tragic story. And Jude Law turns in a bristling performance as her cuckolded spouse. The sweeping cinematography of the Russian landscape will make you long for a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. –p.d. lee
